Life Alert

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Life Alert is a company that provides services that help the elderly contact emergency services. The company's system is based around a device with a button shaped as a pendant to be worn on the user at all times. Life Alert was founded by Isaac Shepher in 1987.

[edit] How the service works

When an elderly, handicapped or feeble individual falls down, or has a medical emergency, he or she may be incapable of obtaining assistance because a telephone is out of reach. Life Alert sells a service consisting of a worn device and an automated dialer connected to a telephone line. When needed, he or she activates the pendant by depressing its button. The telephone device calls a company call center and the pendant acts as a cordless telephone to an operator who performs the service of emergency services dispatcher to notify emergency services of the condition of the customer.

The service is marketed as a way for seniors to continue living at home rather than move to a nursing home.

[edit] See also

"I've fallen and I can't get up!" is a catchphrase similar to the one Life Alert has used in their commercials, in the years after it was popularized. It was actually created by a competing company, Lifecall, which has since gone out of business in the United States. Life Alert has since trademarked the phrase.
Lifeline